Aleppo divided: the side of the city unaffected by war

As the eastern side of Aleppo is slowly torn apart by an unrelenting five-year civil war, the city’s west remains almost completely untouched, oblivious to the terror just outside its walls.

Reports of new atrocities and devastation have become almost daily occurrences in East Aleppo as rebel fighters battle to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad's government regime, which has aligned itself with Russia.

Channel 4’s Inside Aleppo documentary series, which has been documenting the violence, has shown first-hand the horrors of the conflict which has killed thousands of men, women and children.

Only a few kilometres away on the other city of the city in pro-Assad Western Aleppo, life is very different.

Children can be seen laughing and swimming, restaurants and nightclubs are open to the public and people go to work each day, carefree of the sounds of explosions and billowing black smoke over the horizon.

Filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab was granted rare access to the pristine side of the embattled city which is home to more than one and half million people.

While life in Western Aleppo appears peaceful on camera, its future remains uncertain as rebel forces continue to press forward each day, moving the front line closer to the west.

“Hundreds of thousands of lives were swept away for nothing, in this so-called revolution. But they are our families, they are our neighbours, they are our relatives,” a resident in Western Aleppo narrated while staring at a plume of smoke in the distance.

“We are huge big family that was dived into the parts, the eastern and western side of Aleppo. You hear the sound of shooting near your house. My house is located near the front line. And the last few night rebels have tried to break into the part of the neighbourhood.”